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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29288868">Burnout</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Makoto_Mori/pseuds/Makoto_Mori'>Makoto_Mori</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Acts of Defiance [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach, Bleach (Live Action Movie)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Protectiveness, Self-Sacrifice, movie-verse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:47:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,539</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29288868</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Makoto_Mori/pseuds/Makoto_Mori</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"'How do you know that he ‘always’ snores?' Orihime asks, her usually pleasant tone turning sharp with jealousy. Tatsuki and the other girls exchange conspiratorial looks, and Rukia feels herself blush right to the roots of her hair. Rukia can only sigh. There’s no getting out of this one."</p><p>After Ichigo's fight with Renji, Rukia is forced to come clean about some rumours at school, and she makes a choice. </p><p>(Live-action movie-verse, set after the fight with Renji)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Acts of Defiance [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2185104</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>66</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Burnout</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Hello!<br/>I have rewatched the Bleach Live Action movie a handful of times since the start of lockdown and it's still an A+ movie. 10/10 great film. Rukia and Ichigo are so in love I can't stand it &lt;3333<br/>This story takes place after fight with Renji and before Rukia goes to meet Byakuya and Renji at the shrine to Soul Society.<br/>Please enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At lunchtime, Ichigo eases himself into the seat in front of her, trying to mask a hiss of pain with a deep exhale. Rukia pretends not to notice him, even when he sets a carton of her favourite juice down on her desk. She doesn’t think she can even bear to look at him, with the bandages criss-crossing his ruined chest peeking out from under his t-shirt and the darkening purple and blue bruises on his face and neck left by Renji.</p><p>“Oi!” he snaps finally, slapping her desk and making her jump “Are you going to brood out the window all day, or are you going to come eat something?”</p><p>She finally turns to face him and sets her mouth in a hard line, not trusting herself to speak. He sighs and rolls his eyes at her.</p><p>“It’s always the difficult way with you, isn’t it?” he says, sounding exhausted. With great effort, he stands up and seizes her wrist, pulling her roughly to her feet. She doesn’t feel much like fighting with him today, so she allows him to lead her up the stairs up the roof. The girls of his friend group are gathered in a small circle with their lunches on their laps, while the boys sit in the shade against the wall opposite them. Tatsuki’s eyes sparkle with mischief when he sees them arrive together.</p><p>“Look who’s come to play, girls, it’s Kuchiki-san” he says, faux enthusiasm in his voice. He pushes her down into the circle of girls and drops a carton of juice and a yakisoba sandwich onto her lap. “She wants to have lunch with you. Have fun.”</p><p>Rukia opens her mouth to protest but he tugs at her sleeve before she can say anything.</p><p>“Give me your jacket” he says, his voice hoarse with tiredness.</p><p>Slightly puzzled, she unbuttons her drab grey school jacket at the neck, and he pulls it off her shoulders for her, grunting in thanks before moving over next to Chad. Ichigo lies down on the concrete using his schoolbag as a pillow and his own jacket as a blanket, draping Rukia’s jacket over his face to block out the light. The pain medication his father had given him was very strong, Rukia remembers, so much so he had still been in a deep sleep when she had left for school this morning. She had paused on the windowsill to watch his breath rise and fall in a ragged rhythm until she had felt her own chest constrict.</p><p> </p><p>“So, I just got the newest volume of ‘Fate Relta Nua’, Kuchiki-san” Tatsuki said, her voice pitched higher than usual in an effort to blanket the awkwardness “I see you reading it sometimes too. What did you think of the latest chapter? Isn’t is just the best!”</p><p>Rukia allows herself to be drawn into a conversation about manga with Tatsuki, Orihime and the other girls. She isn’t much of a conversationalist, but she allows herself to relax a little bit basked in the sunshine and good company. Ichigo’s snoring interrupts the cheerful conversation and the girls giggle while Chad cracks a rare fond smile.</p><p>“He always snores like a train” Rukia laughs along as she sips on her juice. The other girls are suddenly silent, and the atmosphere chills noticeably.</p><p><em>Shit</em>.</p><p>“How do you know that he ‘always’ snores?” Orihime asks, her usually pleasant tone turning sharp with jealousy. Tatsuki and the other girls exchange conspiratorial looks, and Rukia feels herself blush right to the roots of her hair.</p><p>“It’s-It’s not like that!” she stutters out in protest. Orihime looks at her accusatorily and Rukia can only sigh. There’s no getting out of this one.</p><p>“It’s just… I have no parents and my brother is my guardian” she begins, drawing her knees up to her chin and avoiding the eyes of the other girls “And we had a… fight. A bad fight.”</p><p><em>Understatement of the year</em>, she thinks, but it’s as close to the truth as she can get.</p><p>“- And Kurosaki-kun he - he’s letting me stay with him. In his guest bedroom, of course. Until things are worked out. And I can hear him snoring through the walls…” she trails off.</p><p>“Oh, Kuchiki-san we had no idea” Orihime says, reaching out to touch Rukia’s bare arm soothingly. Tatsuki lays her hand on Rukia’s other arm, eyes burning with sympathy.</p><p>“Kurosaki-kun – Ichigo – he’s just been putting up with all of the rumours and the teasing and - <em>everything</em> - to protect me-” she says, pressing her face into her knees as if it’s going to stop the words from tumbling out of her mouth. “And all I’ve done is just be a burden to him. I wish – I <em>wish</em> I had never gotten him involved in this at all but I-”</p><p>
  
</p><p><em>One understatement after another after another after another</em>-</p><p> </p><p>A hot tear rolls down her cheek unbidden and it makes her gasp, with surprise more than anything. She can’t remember the last time she has felt something so intense as the wretched guilt cloying at her gut. But then again, since that fateful night when she met Ichigo, all sorts of feelings she had thought were long dead within her had started to stir in her once again. She is interrupted by the toe of a boot nudging her in the behind and she whips around to her feet as if she’s been electrocuted, to find Ichigo standing with her jacket slung over his shoulder.</p><p> </p><p>“We should get to class” he says, his tone carefully neutral. Tatsuki, Orihime and the others nod wordlessly and follow Chad down the stairs to their classroom.</p><p> </p><p>Ichigo holds out Rukia’s jacket at the shoulders and slides it over her arms for her. He turns her to face him and does up the button under her chin. Then he adjusts her ribbon-necktie and smooths out the wrinkles at her collar. There’s a look of gruff tenderness in his whiskey-coloured eyes but not quite pity as he wipes her cheek with the sleeve of his jacket. He either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about the dark streak it leaves on his cuff. She follows him down the stairs one at a time, watching him wince in pain at every slight movement.</p><p> </p><p>Rukia sits at her usual desk by the window and continues to stare out at the scenery for the rest of the class. She makes to leave school a period early without a word but does allow herself to pause in the doorway to take one last look at him slumped across his desk with his head rested in the crook of his elbow. He runs his other hand through his already unruly hair and gives her a tired smile. She smiles thinly in return before she turns away, not trusting herself to stand there for another moment.</p><p> She takes the long way back to the Kurosaki house. It doesn’t take long to tidy up her little room in his wardrobe. She takes care to fold his sister’s pyjamas neatly and organise the little stack of manga she’s been hoarding. She contemplates writing a note to tell him not to come after her, but since he never listens to her anyway it might only spur him on more to chase after her and that simply cannot happen. She shuts the door of his wardrobe, and with it her little life in his world too.</p><p> </p><p>She spends a few hours down by the river where she had tried to make him into a soul reaper, just listening to the water flowing under the bridge. She knows that Ichigo won’t stop. He will continue to destroy himself to protect her if she allows him. That’s just who he is – the type that would light himself on fire in an attempt to keep others warm, and she just can’t let him do it anymore, not for her. But Byakuya will not stop in his quest to punish her either and Ichigo’s life is inconsequential to that end. So, she will put an end to this whole sorry mess she has made.</p><p> </p><p>When she eventually makes it to the shrine the full moon is already high in the sky. Soon Byakuya will be expecting her, powers restored and Ichigo’s blood on her hands. But instead, she will swallow her fear and plead with Byakuya for Ichigo’s life, the precious normal life he prized so dearly that she so unjustly stole from him by forcing her powers on him. She will convince her brother to let her give it back to him so he can get on with it the way it was before she burned through it. She will be punished, and severely so, possibly even killed, but everything will be back as it should be in his little world and that is a fair trade off to her. It is the very least that he deserves and the most she is able to give him. She doesn’t care what it costs her.</p><p> </p><p><em>I’m sorry, Ichigo</em>, she thinks as she drops to one knee and bows her head in deference to the shadowy figures coming through the portal, <em>but you’re going to have to let me protect you this time</em>…</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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